Brewers 8, Astros 7

W: Livan Hernandez (3-1)
L: Francisco Cordero (3-8)
S: John Axford (17)

HR: Scott Moore (5), Nyjer Morgan (3), Cody Ransom (9)

MVP: Nyjer Morgan( .325)
LVP: Kameron Loe (-.196)

Fangraphs Win Expectancy Graph

There are nine guys in a starting lineup. If I gave you five guesses to pick tonight's offensive heroes, you probably wouldn't choose the right ones.

Folks have been wondering all season where Nyjer Morgan has been, but he arrived just in time tonight as the Brewers were two-infield hits that could have been rules errors away from being no-hit by Bud Norris and the Astros. Morgan his a two-run, seventh-inning home run to bring the Brewers back into the game and force Norris from the game.

Ok, maybe it's not that bad, but the way this team was going, it felt like we were getting no-hit and definitely were getting shut out by the Astros into the seventh inning.

Of course, then we scored four runs on five hits and a walk.

But, being the 2012 Brewers, they had the bases loaded with one out after that and didn't score any more runs.

K-Rod was up warming when the Brewers were losing, but was sat down when they took the lead.

And then Livan Hernandez came in and promptly allowed the Astros to tie the game, giving the team 21 blown saves on the season and ensuring Marco Estrada goes another start without a win.

But theeeeeeennnn in the eighth, Jonathan Lucroy doubled, Nyjer Morgan bunted and for some reason Norris tried to get Lucroy at second and all were safe. Cesar Izturis is credited with a "swinging bunt" (but really he kind of just flailed and mistakenly made contact) on which Lucroy scored and then Cody Ransom hit a three-run home run to give the Brewers an 8-4 lead heading into the ninth.

So to review, Nyjer Morgan had a HR and 2 RBI. Cesar Izturis hit a double and had an RBI. Cody Ransom had a HR and 3 RBI. Aramis Ramirez stole a base. K-Rod was sat down in favor of a two-inning save by Livan Hernandez.

I know none of you P-Keg'ed any of that.

But don't worry folks, this is the 2012 Brewers bullpen, so you know we're not done. But you still won't guess the next series of events...

So then to start the ninth, Hernandez walked a guy (doesn't matter who, this is the new-look Astros, you've never heard of him), allowed him to take second on defensive indifference and then gave up a single to make it 8-5.

And then Roenicke showed another short leash and brought in Kam Loe - who walked the next batter on four straight to bring the tying run to the plate. That guy hit an RBI double to make it 8-6 and put the tying run in scoring position with one out.

So theeeeeeen we made a pitching change and went with John Axford, who gave up a sac fly to make the game 8-7 and then drilled Brett Wallace to put runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs and bring up the biggest run producer left on the Astros, J.D.Martinez.

And the Cesar Izturis made a diving stop deep in the hole, threw it to first (where Corey Hart sno-coned it) and got what looked like a gift of a call for the out at first.

AND THEN WE WON!